Ribbon Cake

⇐ Recipes from cookery books

Ingredients

for the omelettes

6 eggs beaten

bunch parsley, finely chopped

salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp cold water

for the mushroom filling

150g mushrooms

25g butter

120ml Dão Grão Vasco or other red wine

25g beurre manié, equal quantities flour and butter kneaded together

salt & freshly ground black pepper

for the spinach filling

350g spinach

25g butter

25g flour

150ml milk

100g Stilton cheese

salt & freshly ground black pepper

butter for frying

for the aubergine filling

1 medium aubergine

salt

olive oil for frying

2 shallots finely chopped

225g tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped

freshly ground black pepper

to garnish

1 tbsp parmesan cheese

1 tbsp breadcrumbs

Method

The fillings and omelettes can be made in any order, but the aubergines take the longest, especially if they are sprinkled with salt and allowed to sweat out some juices.

make the omelettes

1. Beat the eggs and other omelette ingredients (except butter) together. Make 4 thin omelettes and set aside

make the mushroom filling

1. slice the mushrooms and sweat in butter. After minute, pour in the wine and season briefly. Remove mushrooms with a slotted spoon before thickening the sauce with the beurre manié. Return mushrooms to sauce, remove from heat and set aside.

make the spinach filling

1. wash the spinach and remove stems if necessary. Cook in just the water that clings to them for a minutes or two till wilted. Drain well, and squeeze out excess water. Chop roughly. Heat butter in a pan, use flour to make a roux, then make a sauce with the milk. Add the cheese. Stir in spinach and season

make the aubergine filling

slice the aubergine and sprinkle with salt and allow juices to drain out, then wash and drain - this probably doesn't need to be done with a standard supermarket aubergine. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan and saute the aubergine slices for 5 minutes. The add the shallots and tomatoes. Simmer for at least 15 minutes stirring frequently. Season.

assemble the dish

Build up layers of omelettes and sauces, e.g. mushroom on bottom, then spinach and then aubergine. Top final omelette with parmesan and breadcrumbs. Place in oven at 170℃ for 15 minutes to warm through - more like 30+ minutes if heating from cold.

Green Cuisine Jill Robinson, ed Colin Spencer